News & Op-Ed Commentary from The People's Republic of Moscow (Idaho)

University hosts ‘critical look at whiteness’ forum

SAN MARCOS, Calif. — The Christian cartoon “VeggieTales” is racist because the villains are vegetables of color. The NFL is racist since most players are black and most coaches and owners are white. White women advance white supremacy when they support President Donald Trump.

These are some of the arguments made by students at a “Whiteness Forum” held at Cal State San Marcos on Thursday that aimed to take a “critical look at whiteness,” according to organizers.

The two-hour event took place in a large multipurpose room, with more than a dozen poster board projects lined up in a circle around the room for viewers to review.

The forum is a result of Professor Dreama Moon’s Communications 454 class titled “The Communication of Whiteness,” with the annual event serving as a showcase of students’ final projects for the class.

Various titles for projects included “White Avoidance,” “Civilized vs. Uncivilized,” “Kill the Land, Kill the Indian,” “White Women’s Role in White Supremacy,” “Gun Ownership and Racial Bias” and more.

One project argued the NFL is to blame for its role in white supremacy, as most football players are black, yet most coaches, who many times were previous players, are white. It also noted that an even higher majority of team owners are white.

Another project suggested that the children’s Christian television show, “VeggieTales,” perpetuates racial stereotypes. A female student who worked on the project said in an interview that the accents of the evil characters tend to sound ethnic, such as Latino, while the good characters sound white.